We Gather Together
by sasha1600
Summary: Thanksgiving dinner. Set in the ‘Future Perfect’ universe.
1. Chapter 1

**We Gather Together**

**Summary:** Thanksgiving dinner. Set in the 'Future Perfect' universe.

**Disclaimer:** Katie and Leigh are mine; the rest belong to other people.

* * *

A/N: This is set in the 'Future Perfect' universe, which features Katie and Leigh, the twin daughters of Tim and Abby.

* * *

'Is this enough, Mama?'

Abby glanced over at the kitchen table, where her daughter was peeling apples for a pie. A single skinless apple, still possessed of its core, sat in a bowl waiting to be sliced.

'No, keep going.'

Leigh sighed audibly as she reached for another apple.

'And we can do without the attitude, young lady.'

'But, Mama, everyone else is...'

Abby turned as much as she was able to without moving her hands away from the sink, not wanting to drip turkey blood onto the floor. They'd already had the conversation about Leigh's friends taking advantage of the uncharacteristically mild November weather by getting together to play soccer while they waited for the big meal. A hint of exasperation edged into her voice.

'Well, the faster you peel them, the sooner you can get out of here.'

'But, nobody else has to...'

'You're the one who doesn't like pumpkin, Leigh. If you want me to make a pie just for you, the least you can do is peel the damn apples!'

Leigh's eyes grew wide with surprise, and she wisely stopped complaining and bent her head over the table. Abby suppressed a smile as she turned back to the sink and went back to making sure that the inside of the turkey had been cleaned to her satisfaction. Leigh had no doubt heard worse language on the schoolyard, but the uncharacteristic outburst had clearly been effective at conveying the message that her mother was rapidly running out of patience.

When Tim wandered through the kitchen a few minutes later, a freshly laundered tablecloth draped over one arm, Abby was staring critically at the turkey.

'Tim, how big does this guy look to you?'

Tim glanced briefly at the bird.

'Relax, Abby. It's going to be big enough.'

'No, that's not what I mean. The label says it's a twelve-pound turkey...'

'Ok, so it's...'

'Does that _look_ like a twelve-pound turkey to you? It's enormous!'

'Abby, it's not 'enormous'. It's...'

'Bigger than twelve pounds!'

'Ok, maybe it's a bit bigger. What's the problem? It just means we got some free turkey...'

'Do you know how long to cook a turkey, Tim?'

'Uh... a couple of hours?'

'Twenty minutes _a pound_! Which means you need to know how much it weighs! _Really_ weighs! If that's a fifteen-pound turkey, that's a whole extra _hour_ it needs to be in the oven...'

'Well, we're not in a hurry...'

'But I need to know when to start cooking Katie's tofurkey, and when...'

'Katie's _what_?!'

'Tofurkey, Daddy. A tofu "turkey",' Leigh explained, sketching the inverted commas in the air with her fingers.

'...to put the vegetables on! I need to know how much this bird weighs!'

'Abby, calm down...'

'Don't tell me to calm down!'

Abby glanced back and forth between the turkey and her husband.

'Go get the scale from the bathroom, Leigh.'

Leigh looked up in obvious confusion.

'GO!'

Leigh dropped the knife with a clatter and grabbed a piece of paper towel, scrubbing at her hands as she raced from the room.

'Abby, you can't put a turkey on a bathroom scale...'

'So, we weigh you, with and without the turkey, and the difference is the weight of the turkey.'

'I am not getting on a scale holding a turkey!'

'Well, it's either that, or you take the turkey in to the lab and put it on one of the scales there for me.'

'Can't you just estimate the weight?'

'Do you want everyone to get food poisoning from undercooked poultry?!'

'We have a meat thermometer, Abby.'

'I still need to know when it's going to be ready, so I can time everything else!' Abby gestured wildly in the direction of the tablecloth on Tim's arm. 'Go put that on the table, and...'


	2. Chapter 2

Gibbs stepped into the kitchen carrying a salad, the only part of the meal that Abby would let him contribute. He'd come early, hoping to be able to help out, at least. He'd become an expert potato-peeler in the Corps, spending a lot of time on spud detail during a posting with a CO whose discipline strategies hadn't provided enough disincentive to keep boisterous young Marines out of mischief.

He blinked, then stared in confusion at the sight of Tim standing on a scale, holding a raw turkey in a roasting pan.

'Abby, would you hurry up? This thing is getting heavy!'

Abby finished washing her hands and turned off the water, snatching some paper towel as she spun away from the sink.

'I don't know why I have to read it for you...'

'Because I can't _see_ the dial around the turkey!'

Tim finally looked up and saw him.

'Uh, hi, Boss,' he said sheepishly, falling into the old form of address the way he sometimes did, especially when he was feeling self-conscious.

'Do I want to know?'

'Abby doesn't believe the label on the turkey...'

'Because it is clearly wrong! _That_ is _not_ a twelve-pound turkey!'

Gibbs burst out laughing.

'It's not funny, Gibbs!' Abby practically shrieked, throwing the wadded-up paper towel at him. He raised one eyebrow and glared at her, but wasn't able to keep the amusement out of his eyes. It definitely _was_ funny, but she was clearly too frazzled to see that right now.

Abby bent over and read the dial, then snatched the turkey out of the pan and held it over the sink, clearly trying to contain any drips.

'Ok, Tim, get off the scale so it resets, and get back on. We need to know... NO! Don't put the pan down! Why do you think I'm holding the turkey here? I don't need the weight of the turkey plus the pan, I need the weight of the turkey on its own, so I need the weight of you plus the pan...'

'But I can't see the dial with the pan in front of me, and if you're...'

'Gibbs! You need to...'

He was already moving towards his former agent, trying hard to keep a straight face.

A quick calculation revealed that the turkey did, in fact, weigh nearly sixteen pounds.

'Told you so!' Abby declared, setting about stuffing the bird.


	3. Chapter 3

'Katie, can you drain the corn for me?'

Katie lifted the lids from each of the pots on the stove before asking quizzically, 'What corn?'

Abby looked up from the cranberry sauce that she was spooning into a small crystal bowl.

'It's right there, on the back burner!'

Katie double-checked both pots at the back of the stove.

'No, there's potatoes in one, and some kind of mush in the other.'

'Oh, for crying out loud... do I have to do everything myself?'

Katie stepped back from the stove and let her clearly exasperated mother pluck the lid from the smaller pot.

'Dammit!'

'What's wrong?' Tim called from the dining-room, where he had just deposited the turkey in the place of honour on the table.

'I wasn't paying attention when I got the corn out of the freezer...'

'And? We've got peas instead? That's ok...'

'No! We have a pot of boiled french fries!'


	4. Chapter 4

Gibbs looked around the table with satisfaction. His entire family – and they _were_ family, in every way that mattered – was together. Even Tony had made it; even though he was on call for the holiday this year, he miraculously hadn't been called in. Yet. His phone was on his hip, and his weapon was in Tim's gun safe in deference to the house rules, but he was here.

Gibbs was pulled out of his brief reverie by the beginnings of a squabble between the twins on the other side of the table. Leigh had already protested loudly when Katie had added an apology for the death of the turkey onto the end of the grace she had insisted on saying, refusing to say 'amen' to her sister's grace and saying her own instead. Now, she was cheerfully pointing out to Katie that her dinner wasn't a 'real' Thanksgiving feast, since there hadn't been any tofu at the original holiday.

'C'mon, Katie... it's _Thanksgiving_! Have some turkey!'

'I don't eat my friends,' she answered primly, giving her usual explanation for her sudden decision to become a vegetarian.

'Have you ever even _met_ a turkey?!'

'That's not the point! Nobody had to die for my holiday!'

'It's a _turkey_.You can only say 'nobody' and 'anybody' about _people_. Weren't you listening in English last week?'

'Turkeys are people, too.'

'No they aren't!'

'Are too!'

'Are not!'

'ENOUGH!'

The twins fell silent at Tim's sharp reprimand, but they continued to shoot hostile glances at each other.

Gibbs suppressed a smile, silently agreeing with Leigh's assessment of Katie's culinary choices. He'd been resisting her efforts to foist assorted tofu-based concoctions onto him as determinedly as he had rebuffed Agent's Todd's well-meaning efforts to 'improve' his diet. A slight grin tugged at the corners of his lips as he remembered a tofu wrap that had landed, untasted, in his trash can. Kate would have been amused, he thought, to see her namesake following in her footsteps.

'You know, Katie, you aren't really saving any turkeys' lives by not eating them. They wouldn't even be born, if they weren't going to be sold to a supermarket.'

Gibbs shot a warning glare at his former senior agent. Trust DiNozzo to get involved in the kids' squabbling.

'Turkeys aren't _born_, Uncle Tony, they're _hatched_.'

'Yeah, but farmers only raise turkeys so we can eat them,' Leigh retorted, clearly delighted by the unexpected ally. 'If everyone becomes vegetarian, there won't be any turkey farms, so there won't be any turkeys. And a whole lot of farmers will be out of work.'

'Well, the turkeys would rather not be hatched at all, than to live in horrible conditions and then get eaten. And the farmers can just grow soybeans instead.'

'How do you know what turkeys would prefer? Are you saying you think like a bird-brain?' Leigh asked with a smile, obviously winding up for several days of turkey-themed teasing.

'And aren't you forgetting about the soybeans' feelings?'

'Soybeans don't _have_ feelings! Turkeys are...'

'Now, isn't that just speciesist? The poor soybeans..._oomph_....HEY!'

'Leigh, stop giving your sister a hard time.'

'Yessir,' Leigh mumbled, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. The warning swat might have been directed at Tony, but she'd clearly gotten the message that she was getting perilously close herself to the limits of what would be tolerated as sisterly banter.

'And you, stop egging her on! You're worse than the children!'

Tony pouted, melodramatically rubbing the back of his head.

Both girls struggled to keep from giggling. It wasn't the first time they'd seen their honorary Uncle get smacked upside the head by Gibbs, but it still clearly amused them to see a grown-up get disciplined like an unruly child. And, judging from the looks they were now exchanging, it was a fairly effective means of encouraging some sibling bonding.

Gibbs exchanged an amused look with Tim, who nodded his understanding. It was just like old times, in the squad room.

Tim suddenly announced that it was time for a toast, and Gibbs reached for his glass in ready acquiescence, smiling as the twins eagerly raised their own ginger-ale-filled wine glasses.

'Try to keep it under five minutes this time, ok Tim?'

'Abby, I don't...'

'D'ya remember Sarah's wedding?' Abby turned towards Tony before continuing, 'She asked her big brother _the writer_ to give one of the toasts, thinking it would be eloquent and literary...'

'Abby...'

'...she'd obviously forgotten how long-winded Tim can be when he gets on a roll!'

Tony chuckled and turned expectantly towards McGee, his own glass in hand. Since he was on call, it was, like the girls', filled with ginger-ale.

'Family is...' Tim began, but was suddenly interrupted by a loud chortle of laughter from his former partner.

Gibbs turned towards Tony, one eyebrow raised.

'Sorry, Probie. It just occurred to me that you should just say "God bless us, everyone".'

_Thwap!_


End file.
